Rice helmet stickers: Offense rolls in win over UTEP

• Quarterback Nick Fanuzzi: This hasn’t been an easy season for Fanuzzi, who lost his job to Taylor McHargue and has spent his final year watching from the bench. To his credit, Fanuzzi never sulked and waited patiently for his opportunity. It came Saturday, and in his first start of the season Fanuzzi completed 30 of 43 for a career-high 405 yards and three touchdowns. He joins Tommy Kramer (1976) and Chase Clement (2007-08) as the only Rice quarterbacks to pass for at least 400 yards in a game.

“He’s prepared hard for this moment,” coach David Bailiff said. “He knew it was coming. He’s maintained a great attitude since last year. When his number was called he was ready.”

Fanuzzi gets bonus points for waiting until the last moment – and a defender coming at him like a rocket – before throwing a 23-yard touchdown to Randy Kitchens that gave the Owls some cushion late in the game.

• Wide receiver Vance McDonald: At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, McDonald is a matchup problem for most teams. The Owls finally were able to exploit the mismatch as McDonald caught a career-high eight passes for 157 yards and a touchdown.

• Cornerback Bryce Callahan: When will teams learn? Callahan had two interceptions against UTEP, giving him a team-leading five for the season. His last interception with 6:37 remaining was clutch, allowing the Owls to take a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.

“I hope (teams) keep picking on him,” Bailiff said.

• Offensive coordinator John Reagan: The Owls offense has been criticized this season for underachieving and, at times, a lack of imagination. It may have taken half the season, but Reagan and the offensive staff have shown a commitment to a steady dose of the wild Owl formation in the last two games and have found ways to get the ball to play-makers such as Vance McDonald and Taylor Cook. For the first time the Owls established a run-pass balance that truly kept the opposing defense off-balance and guessing.

• Running back Tyler Petersen: Petersen has been the driving force behind the success of the wild Owl formation. He got things going with a 44-yard touchdown run, and he also had a 29-yard pass to Tyler Smith on the Owls’ second drive that showed Rice is capable of throwing out of the formation.

• Running back Tyler Smith: The best way to describe Smith is steady. He had another all-around solid game with 89 rushing yards and eight catches for 74 yards.

• Tight end Taylor Cook: The way Cook has been (or in this case hasn’t been) used has been one of the biggest enigmas for the Owls this season. Cook had his best game of the season with three catches for 89 yards. He had a 51-yard catch that setup the Owls’ go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

• Wide receiver Jordan Taylor: After missing time with a leg injury suffered in a car accident prior to preseason camp, Taylor is showing why the coaching staff was so high on him. He had three catches, including a 6-yard touchdown that allowed the Owls to take a 34-31 lead late in the fourth quarter.

• Kicker Chris Boswell: Boswell connected on field goals from 37 and 23 yards to give him 14 this season. That moves him into sole position of third place on the school’s all-time list. He is three away from the single-season record 17, set by James Hamrick in 1985. Boswell did have a kickoff go out of bounds that allowed UTEP to begin a drive at its 40-yard line.

• Linebacker Justin Allen: Allen had a key sack to force a punt in the first quarter that allowed the Owls to get the ball back and score to take a 10-point lead. He also had a tackle for loss later in the game, giving him nine for the season.

• Defensive end Scott Solomon: Solomon was questionable for the game with an ankle injury. He only had three tackles, but his presence forces teams to take notice.

6 Responses

The offensive line did very well too – has Hodde’s move helped solidify that unit? I thought Jared Williams had his best overall game as an Owl. And while Boswell’s field goals were great, he wasn’t great kicking off the ball.

Too bad the Owls waited (for the second year in a row) until late in the year to get their offense untracked. Their only chance to win games is obviously to outscore people. (The Purdue exception is explained as much by their QB situation at the time as by the play of the Rice defense that day.)

One might ask why, on a day the offense generates over 700 yards, and the opponent only about 400, does the game come down to a recovered onside kick? The main reason? Absolutely abysmal kick-offs, kick-off coverage, and kick-off returns. The Miners started every drive after a Rice TD with a relatively short field, while the Owls usually started inside the 20. I seem to recall one kick-off the Owls returned short of their own ten yard line.

So, there are several things to be worked on as the Owls seek to maintain the offensive efficiency they attained this week. Had even a single turnover been suffered by the Owls, the game probably would have been lost.

I’m hoping for an upset at Northwestern on Saturday. Although it seems unlikely, no more so than the Wildcats winning in Lincoln! Stranger things have happened, and if Rice wins, I think the Owls will reach their bowl goal. Too bad mistakes have eliminated any margin for error in a year when the talent level seemed sufficient to reach that goal.

Definitely great game by the offense. UTEP seemed to adjust to the zone read out of the wildowl as the game wore on (as did UH), so I hope Rice is ready with a few more variations (especially outside the tackles) against NW.

Kickoffs, kickoff coverage, and kickoff returns were really the only phase of the game Rice lost, and its amazing how it kept things close. Boswell started the year booming lots of touchbacks, hopefullly he can get back to doing it again these last 3 weeks.

Rice beating Northwestern would be less of an upset than Northwestern beating Nebraska @ Lincoln.